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How to help stabilize your lower back before exercising!

Dr Dustin goes over some simple exercises to help stabilize your lower back before high intensity exercises-check them out in the video below!

VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION BELOW:

Hey, everybody. I wanted to shoot a quick video for a patient of mine. Josh, this one specifically is for you, but I’m putting it on our Facebook, because it’s good for everybody really.

It’s going over a couple of really simple things to bring in something lower back stability. I put on there before any high intensity training, because Josh is actually a member at our Crossfit, and so he’s wanting to work towards some higher intensity stuff. So this is really good to stabilize that midline area, but, again, it’s really good for everybody.

Whenever we are doing certain exercises, whether it’s the dead lifts or [inaudible 00:00:37] or something like that, the hip hinge where I’m bending here not in my lower back is really important. So I need to be able to have a good firing hip hinge while my midline, my lower back, stays stable. It doesn’t round forward. It doesn’t kick into hyperextension.

We worked on a couple of things with Josh on segmented dead lifts where he’s working on just going here, maybe even doing some reps from the bottom to the knee, so this part of his spine always straight, and it’s just the angle of the leg to the body that’s changing.

A couple of the simple things to work on. One is getting used to flattening your lower back against the ground, so I can tighten that area. Then, I can actually, once I’m in contact there, work on bringing my leg down and back up. I may start just with my knees here, because if I bring my leg out very far, and my lower back starts to arch, then I’m reaching failure. I’m pushing myself too hard.

I want to keep flat against the ground, work on holding tight here while just taking my knee back and forth. I can work on both sides. Then, I can work on taking my leg down. Okay, good. Still low back is against there. Should not be able to take your fingers underneath your lower back. Do on both sides.

Then, long term you can really even end up working both feet. I hit here, my back arches. Okay, I’ve gone too far. So I just work through this range of motion while keeping my midline completely rock solid and stable.

Another thing after that is working on simple bridges. So I drive up, and from here, I can try and take my leg out and hold for seconds while keeping my midline stable. If I start to drop down, then I’m doing too much. Right?

One of the others to follow with is called the arm-leg opposition or bird dog. I’m going to get my knees centered to my hips. My hands centered to my shoulders, and I’m set here. Again, I’m going to try and tighten my stomach. I don’t want my lower back to ever arch down. So I’m tight here, and then I slowly bring my arm and leg out and back to center.

If I’m struggling, maybe I just start leg, then arm. Eventually, I want to get to this point, keeping my stomach tight, not letting myself angle one way or the other, not letting myself drop down.

Really basic stuff that is easy, or I guess simple, but not crazy easy. If you notice that your back is kicking into extension, you need to work on that stuff more to make it’s stable. Really good stuff to do before high intensity, and Josh specifically, start working on this stuff. We’ll get you moving forward.

As always, let me know if you ever have any questions. Anybody else, be happy to shoot videos that show you how to get better with whatever you’re doing with, and we’ll see you next time. Bye.